Cary has finished the trail repairs south of New Hope Church Road and has now opened an area just east of the ATT for parking by ATT users. This is not a large area but should accommodate ~16 vehicles. Cary has allocated funding for a larger, permanent lot on New Hope Church Road to be constructed in 2013.

Once again, TRTC has received a generous donation from the Tobacco Road Marathon. These funds will be used for a number of ATT projects over the next year and allow us to continue our trail maintenance efforts. In recent years funds like these have enabled us to build connector trails at Lawson Street and at Herndon Park and to continue our efforts to improve signage, provide mowing and surface repairs on the southern Durham County section of the trail and to pay rentals for the porta-john at the Fayetteville Road trailhead. In 2012 we will be developing a parking lot at the Pittard-Sears crossing in Chatham County and continue our maintenance of the southern Durham section until it is closed for Phase E construction.

Durham's City Council has approved the Phase E contract with Blythe Construction of Charlotte. We understand it will include a dual surface section from the Chatham County line to Scott-King Road. Durham has not released a specific schedule for the project but has previously indicated that construction would take ~13 months from the actual start of work. The contractor is expected to start work approximately June 1st. Public meetings to outline construction plans and the impacts on trail users during construction will be held on May 14th, 15th and 17th. To keep up with specific events, trail closure dates, and progress please check the Public Works Dept. web site periodically.

April 11 Update: Contract approved by NCDOT. See recent Herald-Sun article on the latest step toward construction

2/16 Update:The bid opening was delayed again- to Feb. 22. Apparently there was some concern about part of the instructions. The city made updates, but wanted the potential firms to have more time to review the changes.
The bid opening for Phase E construction scheduled for January 25th did not occur since there were only two bids rather than the three required by State rules. Durham will now re-advertise the project to try and elicit a third bid. We understand that the City does foresee opening this next round of bids as soon as February 15th but this might be a bit later. The pre-bid conference is now scheduled for February 7th. For more on the rebid see recent Herald-Sun article.
To keep up with the City's schedule and progress on Phase E, please see the Public Works Dept. web site.

Citizens in Apex who regularly cycle over to the ATT are now speaking out for Apex or possibly Wake County to look into a future off-road link. This is not a new idea but it's good to see trail users are again speaking out on this proposal. See a Jan. 24th letter to the editor on one user's views.